Cryptocurrency News From Japan: May 17

This week’s headlines from Japan included BitBank exchange adding three trading pairs, Bitpoint exchange posting decreased fiscal year totals, Bitpoint adding information on its 2019 hack, and Binance donating masks to Japanese nursing homes through its charity arm.

Check out some of this week’s crypto and blockchain headlines, originally reported by Cointelegraph Japan.

BitBank adds three more asset pairings

Japan’s BitBank exchange gave details this week on three upcoming additional trading pairs. The platform originally unveiled the fresh pairs in late April. On May 24, BitBank will complete a four-hour offline upgrade to put the pairs into play.

After the upgrade, customers can trade Ethereum (ETH) against the Japanese yen (JPY), Ripple’s XRP against Bitcoin (BTC), and Litecoin (LTC) against the yen.

Bitpoint announces fiscal year financials

Bitpoin’s fiscal year finished on March 20, 2020, showing sales totals 44.4% lower than the year prior. The company ended the year with operating losses in the red, although the outfit hosted less total loss than the prior year.

Bitpoint suffered a hack in July 2019, bleeding $2.3 million in the process. The hack resulted in temporary exchange closure, followed by a staged reopening, resuming full service in December 2019. In total, the ordeal proved expensive for the company, contributing to the overall fiscal year losses.

The exchange also announced plans for new know-your-customer, or KYC, functions, new interfacing and additional asset capabilities. Additionally, Bitpoint plans on dialing back its international efforts, focusing on its domestic endeavors.